$100 in 1972 is worth $231 in 1982,
because prices increased 130.9% over that period, an average of
8.73% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$231
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
130.9%
Average inflation rate
8.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$231
Price difference ($100 base)
$131
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1972 → 1982
$231
$100 in 1982 → 1972
$43.32
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1982
Between 1972 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 130.9%, which works out to an average of
8.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1982: the 1972 dollar
lost 56.7% of its purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
Every 1972 amount converts to 1982 at the same ratio, 2.31: $1,000 becomes
$2,309, and $10,000 becomes $23,086.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1982
$1.00
$2.31
$5.00
$11.54
$10.00
$23.09
$20.00
$46.17
$50.00
$115
$100
$231
$500
$1,154
$1,000
$2,309
$5,000
$11,543
$10,000
$23,086
$100,000
$230,861
$1,000,000
$2,308,612
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1982
Between 1972 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 264.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 57.0%, against 130.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.73%
$231
Energy
13.81%
$365
Medical care
9.51%
$248
Housing
9.42%
$246
Transportation
9.29%
$243
Food
8.75%
$231
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.09%
$218
Apparel
4.61%
$157
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (8.22% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1972, at end
1972–1980
8.85%
97.1%
$197
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$231
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $145 by
1977, on its way to $231 in 1982; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 5.8% in 1976.
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $231; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1982: $100 is worth $231 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1982/